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Faculty at the University of Prince Edward Island have expressed concern over the erosion of free speech on campus, following the confiscation last month of the student newspaper that had reprinted the notorious Danish cartoons. The Post ran several letters from professors, criticizing this action. But things may get worse. The university administration is currently in negotiations with the Faculty Association over a new collective agreement, and a strike seems imminent. They are particularly insistent that the new contract include a "Code of Conduct" that would obligate the faculty to "act in a manner that will contribute positively to the overall vision, mission and reputation" of UPEI.
A university is the very last place where one should try to stifle debate with gag laws. Where there is no check on power, those in control can act in arbitrary and capricious ways. This is an old tale. I’ve been teaching a course on African politics at UPEI this semester, and we’ve been dealing with the many sad stories of the so-called “big men” who brought their countries to the brink of ruin. I guess that’s why all this sounds so drearily familiar.
After reading and rereading Dr. MacLauchlan's letter in the National Post, I first thought it was a joke -- the outline for a Monty Python script. Then it struck me that he was serious.
Hoogeveen read her personal letter of thanks to Wade MacLauchlan [who] ordered all copies of the newspaper confiscated, burned, and the ashes scattered to the four corners of the earth.
In effect, Wade MacLauchlan admits to not knowing what debate is, or how to defend it. He makes preposterous analogies and parrots silly hyperbole from an unnamed "P.E.I Muslim woman."
After UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan sent campus police to confiscate the student newspaper, he pronounced, in his "President's Newsletter," that the campus environment was improved.
Wade MacLauchlan tried to defend himself by using the statement of a P.E.I. Muslim woman that the hurt caused by the cartoons was "as if I had been raped out on the street ...."
How is one to account for the fact that when the administration at UPEI sent in the police to confiscate the copies of a recent edition of the student newspaper — even though no law had been broken — concern flooded in from across the country, filling up several pages of the Cadre; yet, not a single faculty member from UPEI, spoke out to question (or to defend) the action. What explanation can there be for this strange and unsavory silence? Whether or not they agree with the publishing of the cartoons, one might have expected that at least some of the professors would have cared sufficiently about the tradition of free speech to voice concern over the extremity of the administration’s response. Yet nothing. Not a peep. With a debate over censorship swirling above their heads, the only sound to be heard from the campus was faint rustling in the academic weeds. I recognize that as someone who no longer works for the university it is less threatening for me to speak about these matters than for some of my former colleagues. That, however, raises the question of whether the delicate balance of authority between professors and the administration has tipped in a manner that is not friendly to freedom of expression, or the practice of the liberal arts.
Excerpt: If the West cowers before the radical evangelical fundamentalist movement within Islam, then fanaticism has won. Islamic evangelical fundamentalism is identical to Christian evangelical fundamentalism and all other ontological, theological evangelical fundamentalism: the sole goal and purpose of which is to control thought, stiflle debate, and limit human rights.